ANNALS OF DIPLOMACY cause if one had made one false step it would have failed." Larsen felt he had to pay at least lip service to the supposed "subject" of the seminar. Hirschfeld told me later, with a wicked smile, "It was the funnIest confer- ence I ever attended." Here were three Palestinians and two Israelis having to sit for a whole morning and listen to papers on sliding wage scales and rising cost-of- living indexes, when, Hirschfeld said, "they had really come to talk about other things." At lunch the first day, they were joined by Jan Egeland. The presence of the Deputy Foreign Minister lent a cer- tain formal aura to the gathering and en- dowed the two Israelis with a status that might have been somewhat premature at this early stage. Egeland was certainly taking a risk. Pundik said later he had felt a little "kooky" all day: "Who was I? What exactly was I doing there? Whom was I representing?" After lunch, Egeland drove back to Oslo, and the Pal- estinians and the Israelis secluded them- selves in a side room. Larsen andJuul pa- tiently waited for many hours outside, checking only from time to time to see that they had enough coffee and enough of whatever else they might need. The opening music was encouraging. The participants solemnly agreed that they must never recite the past. Abu Alaa set the precedent for this by gently repri- manding one of his aides, who started off quoting past United Nations resolutions. "Let us not compete on who was nght and who was wrong in the past," Abu Alaa said. "And let us not compete about who can be more clever in the present. Let us see what we can do in the future." The first brainstorming session lasted some eight hours, with one or two brief breaks for meals and short walks outside. The atmosphere was intense Larsen re- members that at one point one of the participants rushed out to the bathroom to throw up. But the five men soon came to know one another, and their sympa- thetic hosts as well. Both sides made a se- rious effort to listen. Three weeks later, they reconvened at Borregard Manor. Both sides must have talked things over with people at home. "We reported to Beilin," Pundik says. 'We did not ask for instructions, and he did not offer us any. But he urged us to . " contInue Hirschfeld now had the useful idea of trying to work out, in very broad outlines, a joint program. It took the form of a joint Declaration of Principles, which in its main outline presaged much of the fu- ture accord. The declaration envisaged free elections in the occupied territories and the gradual establishment of an in- terim autonomous regime there, first in Gaza, and it enunciated a number of "guidelines" for a new international "Marshall Plan," which could make peace palatable to the Palestinians-especially to those in the miserable Gaza Strip. "Agreement was not reached on all is- sues, particularly not on (a) jurisdiction over territory, (b) Jerusalem, and (c) ar- bitration," Hirschfeld wrote to Beilin in a private memorandum. "However, the Palestinians stated clearly that they knew they had to make further concessions and expressed willingness to do so in case U.S. mediation [at the Washing- ton peace talks] would enable them to legi timize such concessions on their side. . . . They expressed great interest in proceeding as quickly as possible and they specifically asked us to encourage the Americans to discuss the outlines of the proposed agreement already at the forth- coming visit of Warren Christopher [to the area]." To Beilin, this was unexpected news The principle of "gradualism"-staged withdrawal of Israeli forces and gradual autonomy for Palestinians-was Hirsch- feld's idea, and it was something new. It meant that during the first two or three years the process of Israeli withdrawal could be halted, or even reversed. The great surprise was that the Palestinians had accepted it. There had been no built- in gradualism in the original autonomy plan agreed to by Israel, Egypt, and the United States at Camp David in 1978. Beilin must have asked himself why this news was brought to him by two ama- teurs rather than by the professionals at the deadlocked Washington talks. How- ever, that first draft was still not enough for an accommodation. It was too am- biguous regarding Jerusalem, and there was nothing in it about borders, settle- ments, or security. But it was not a letter to be put aside without an answer. Beilin took the draft to Foreign Minister Peres, who learned only now of the informal negotiating channel in Norway. Peres was surprised; then he was skeptical. But he thought there was little risk in letting the two freelance negotIators continue. He liked the idea of a new "Marshall 81 I ...--- - .:;::;:d ....r :r- . :. ., ,- ... * .;; ...!II r , . 11' ..rid... .... , . . -or :Ii l ."':1 ! -1J! -"';": e. ......( ... -..;;..i ' 4 .. ,. ....'!' .. ,..'ti4.\ji: ...., ..\ .-w .." .;w. MP'I" """1;:'" " t1 f ...I= . , If;!. . ,,;?,::"'; 'It'" .. :7 :... >Tr _ _ _ c,, ! ct" r- ,..J "'"' :::t: :t r rL" ! ...01-'" DISCIRNING. DISTINCTIVI. DÆDALUS. Erudite. Engaging. Opin- ionated. A celebration of the written word. Daedalus Books features hundreds of the finest literary remain- ders, clever commentary and uncommon insight. Seven catalogs a year, offer- ing everything &om art to politics, children's literature to new fiction. AD at sav- i ngs fup to 90 %. Call for your free catalog today. DÆDAl OO - - - -- -.;;;::: -- PRICELESS CULTURE. PRICED LESS Call 9:00 am - 6:00 pm EST 1-800-395-2665